Ingestible medical capsules are known in the medical arts. Such capsules telemetrically transmit information to a receiving and recording apparatus located outside the body. The wireless capsule is swallowed and travels through the digestive tract, collecting and transmitting data during the course of its journey. Receiving and recording apparatus is stationed external to the body. It is known in the art to use wireless medical capsules for collecting images by equipping them with cameras, or for delivering doses of medication to general areas of the digestive system by equipping them with drug reservoirs.
One type of currently available wireless capsules used in the medical field are carried by peristalsis through the digestive tract, and the capsule location during the journey is either unknown or only approximately known. To overcome this technology barrier, some have used wireless capsule having a permanent magnetic dipole and external magnetic field to control the position and orientation of the capsule. The external magnetic field can be generated either by a coil or a permanent magnet.
It is the goal of the present invention to provide a system and method to place a magnetic capsule endoscope in its precise location having a desired orientation.
In the same field of endeavor, most of the prior arts are silent about the importance of the shape or geometry of an external magnet and their impact on the capsule endoscope system. In the only two patent documents that were found having a geometry description in the drawings, the figures of CN 201010528466 and CN 200910273088.3, the elements providing external magnetic fields are drawn using rectangles.
Additionally, it is generally believed by anybody skilled in the art that external magnet can be of any shape/geometry and any weight. It is generally understood that the external magnet is preferred not to be in a round or globe or a ball shape, because circular contour is difficult to be manufactured, compared to other shapes, for example, square or rectangle shaped.
In the present invention, it is disclosed that contrary to the common notion in the art, the external magnetic providing the magnetic field to move and rotate a magnetic capsule endoscope, is better to be a globe shaped, in a shape of the sphere, in order to provide the best stable magnetic field. The sphere shaped magnetic provides most constant and strongest magnetic field among different shaped magnets, which is especially useful when the magnetic in the capsule endoscope is hard to be stabilized.